#ch128

Gajeel isn’t in the Fantasia parade, and I’m surprised we actually see him at Raven Tail in the manga. In the anime he only says he found it. This is actually a really cool part of his character that I wish we kept more often. Despite his rough, hotheaded exterior, he’s perfectly capable of covert ops. It’s something that really sets Gajeel apart from Natsu and more in line with Gray, which is a duality I like when we find out the many parallels he has with Gray later on. 

And I kinda like this better than the one we got in the anime. It actually tries to show and not tell with Gajeel’s character and redemption. It’s much better characterization, especially since we actually see him in action. We see him distance himself from the rest of the group in favour of this plan, and I like it. 

I like this initial setup for Gajeel to be someone selfless and actually cool, rather than unemotional and cold. He’s even looking at Levy here, contemplatively, foreshadowing to a future interaction of some sort. 

I wish we had more of this before we jumped straight into Gajevy in Tenrou, but these little crumbs of subtle setups that actually exist are interesting. It’s like the Gray and Juvia development at the casino-- it’s subtle, but the fact that they actually exist does so much for my perspective on them. 

I wish the anime kept them in, even if they’ve got little substance behind them.

Honestly, Makarov only chatting up briefly about the plan in the parade made Ivan feel like he was just an afterthought to Makarov. He was reminded of it by Gajeel and then just ‘oh, okay’ and tucked the note in his pocket to look at later. 

But here, we can clearly see Makarov doing the exact opposite. He takes off his Fantasia costume before putting Ivan in the forefront of his mind. And it builds up into something good into Makarov’s own character development in this arc. 

He starts off being naggy, scolding Laxus vainly too little too late, and now, he’s finally actively trying to fix his mistakes, starting from Ivan. 

Unfortunately, as we all know, we don’t see it. 

Just click the tags. Not every tag will necessarily bring up posts yet, but they will... eventually. Not every tag will bring up a readable chapter, either, but some will... split into multiple posts with commentary.

Ch121: October 2016

Ch122: November 2016

Ch123: December 2016

Ch124: January 2016